NX-OS Guestshell 'Vault' Repository Config

Guestshells running CentOS 7 will be unable to update or install system packages since the the default repositories have been deactivated (EOL).

This article shows how to configure and use "Vault" repositories if updating to a newer version of the NX-OS Guestshell running Rocky Linux is not an option.

Access the Guestshell

First, enter the guestshell by typing "guestshell".

guestshell

Then switch to the root user and get into the Management VRF (or whatever VRF has internet connectivity); configure a public DNS server in /etc/resolv.conf.

sudo su
chvrf management # (1)!
echo nameserver 9.9.9.9 > /etc/resolv.conf

This is not necessary if your default VRF has internet access.

Disable the Default Base & Vault Repositories

Simply renaming the repo files using mv does the trick.

mv /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo.bak
mv /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Vault.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Vault.repo.bak

Create a New Vault Repository File

Create the file...

touch /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Vault.repo

Use vi to paste in the repo information and save the file.

Paste into the new '/etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Vault.repo' file.

[Vault-base]
name=Vault - CentOS-$releasever - Base
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enable=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-$releasever

[Vault-updates]
name=Vault - CentOS-$releasever - Updates
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/centos/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enable=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-$releasever

[Vault-extras]
name=Vault - CentOS-$releasever – Extras
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/centos/$releasever/extras/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enable=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-$releasever

Update & Verify the Yum Cache

Clean all repo information and generate a new repo cache.

yum clean all
yum makecache

Verify repositories.

yum repolist

Conclusion & Validation

System updates and new package installations should now be possible, try running yum update -y to update already installed packages.

[root@guestshell cisco]# yum update -y
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Vault-base                                                    | 3.6 kB  00:00:00     
Vault-extras                                                  | 2.9 kB  00:00:00     
Vault-updates                                                 | 2.9 kB  00:00:00     
No packages marked for update

Or even install the nano package so you don't have to go through the experience of editing a file with vi again.

[root@guestshell cisco]# yum install nano -y
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package nano.x86_64 0:2.3.1-10.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package       Arch            Version                Repository           Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 nano          x86_64          2.3.1-10.el7           Vault-base          440 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total download size: 440 k
Installed size: 1.6 M
Downloading packages:
nano-2.3.1-10.el7.x86_64.rpm                               | 440 kB   00:00     
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
  Installing : nano-2.3.1-10.el7.x86_64                                     1/1 
  Verifying  : nano-2.3.1-10.el7.x86_64                                     1/1 

Installed:
  nano.x86_64 0:2.3.1-10.el7                                                    

Complete!